6-26-2021 The day that changed everything

 

(Tricia's Perspective)

Thursday, June 24: On the morning of Thursday, June 24, we couldn't reach our sister Linda, who lives in southern Missouri, about four hours away from where we live in St. Louis. This isn't the first time this has happened--we had told Linda many times that she absolutely had to answer her phone or respond to us via email within a 24-hour period, or else we would worry.

That morning, it had been a day or longer since we had heard from her, so Marilyn called, but couldn't reach her. When she called again, Linda answered, saying that she was laying on the floor. Marilyn immediately told her that we need to call 911, but Linda was adamant that we not do that.  The door was locked, she said, and she didn't want the EMTs to break down the door. 

Marilyn called me to let me know what was happening. At that point, I called Linda, who was still on the floor. Her speech was tired, but clear. She told me that she had been on the floor for hours, but when I asked her why, she answered that she didn't know. When I told her that she needed to get up, she said “I can get up, I just don’t want to.”

Finally, I asked her if she needed me to drive down--she said yes. Linda rarely asks for help, so I knew that it was important that I be there. I had planned a trip to a friend's wedding that weekend, so I immediately canceled the flight, packed a few more things, and headed out of St. Louis by a little after 1:00 p.m.

It was 4:30 p.m. by the time I arrived at Linda's house, and I found that her door was unlocked and she was up and around. She said she felt some pain in her tailbone and side, and was having trouble getting around. But she is up, and I think I’ll be able to handle this. I think I'll be able to help her regain her strength and get her to the doctor the following week.

Friday, June 25: We had a good morning and afternoon. We had breakfast and lunch without incident, with Linda's sugar stable. We watched television and chatted. But at dinner, Linda said she really wasn't hungry for the cheese-flavored rice I prepared. At the time, I didn't think anything of it--we had also had turkey and carrots, along with some soy milk, and then some berries for dessert. I thought it would be OK for her to have a snack later. 

What I know now:  I'm sure that anyone who is an insulin-dependent Type 2 diabetic knows--or anyone who is helping care for a Type 2 diabetic knows--carbs are essential with every meal. But at this point, I had been there less than 48 hours. I had only just asked Linda that afternoon to go over her medications with me, and we had decided to do it the following day. I did not know how essential it was that she have carbs with dinner.

A couple of hours later, Linda left to go to her room. After a while, it seemed as if she had been gone too long. I then heard her phone alarm, which she had set to remind her to take certain medications, going off repeatedly. I went to her door to ask her why she was not turning off the alarm. She replied that she would turn it off, but it continued to sound. Finally, I opened the door to find her slumped over--I quickly had to search on Google how to use the devices required to check someone's blood sugar, and when I did, I found that her blood sugar had crashed to 37. I told her we needed to all 911, but again, she did not want me to. Instead, I ran to get apples and peanut butter, and watermelon to bring her sugar back up enough that she was talking again. Over the next two to three hours, she snacked on banana, oatmeal, and candy. Eventually, her sugar came back up to 75, at which point she said she felt good and wanted to go to bed. I gave her two more pieces of candy as "insurance." 

What I know now: I thought that the fact that she was up and talking and joking meant she was fine, even though her sugar had gotten so low. I did not know then, but know now, that we  should have made sure she had eaten a full meal and gotten her sugar level above 100 before she went to bed.

Saturday, June 26: I normally wake up at 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning, but because we had been up so late the night before, I overslept. My partner, Ed, called me at 9:23 a.m., and jokingly asked why I was still in bed. We chatted a few minutes, before I said that I needed to check on Linda. It was 9:30 when I opened her bedroom door, roughly seven to eight hours after we had gone to bed. She was in an odd posture--on her back, arms and legs perfectly straight--and snoring loudly. I noted that it was odd, but it didn't strike me as incredibly out of the ordinary, so I decided to let her sleep a bit longer while I made some oatmeal for breakfast.  

Only when I went back to her room at 10:00 did I realize: I couldn't wake her. I shook her and shook her, but I quickly realized with horror what had happened. I called 911 and then checked her blood sugar: 41. The EMS team arrived in about 5 minutes. They told me that they are giving her a slow glucose drip, which should rouse her in about 15 to 20 minutes. They then took her to the ER at the regional hospital about 30 minutes away. I quickly packed a bag with some of her clothes and other belongings, expecting her to be awake by the time I arrive. But when I get to the ER about 40 minutes later, her eyes were wide open, but they were unseeing, and her arms were moving back and forth without purpose. By the time she was moved to the ICU, she is in a full coma. 

This was the day that changed everything for us--a clear "before" and "after." I now know a great deal more about how fragile Type 2 diabetes can be, and just how vigilant one has to be with diet and sugar levels. I now know what I should have done on Friday evening. But at that the time, I simply did not have that knowledge when I needed it most. So this was the day when we started questioning everything about how we had handled this situation up to this point. And it was the day that our journey to help Linda awaken--and hopefully recover--from her coma began.